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	One year on Global Biodiversity Framework set to allow more biodiversity loss by FIAN International, Land Coalition, agencies   Dec. 2024   The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted a year ago to stop the rapid decline of biodiversity but serious flaws cast doubt on its ability to deliver.   Ecosystem destruction and the rapid loss of biodiversity are undermining the sustainable production of healthy and culturally appropriate food and thus the realization of the Right to Food and Nutrition (RtFN).   According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 75% of plant genetic diversity has been lost since the beginning of the 20th century, as farmers worldwide have abandoned their local seeds for genetically uniform varieties.   Today, out of 6,000 plant species cultivated for food, just nine account for 66% of total crop production. In addition, 90% of cattle reared in the global north originate in only six breeds and 20% of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction.   The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) was adopted by the states parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on 18 December 2022 as a global plan to protect biodiversity. However, a new policy paper Selling Nature or Protecting Rights? A Right to Food Perspective on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework shows that its underlying premises give rise to concern that it enables business as usual, allowing more destruction and violation of communities’ rights.   As our analysis shows, the framework fails to establish a path away from highly destructive industrial agriculture and other extractive activities and towards agroecology.   A case in point is the KMGBF’s Target 7, which fails to set a time frame to phase out pesticides, instead calling for a reduction of “overall risk from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals.”   Embracing the monetization of 'nature'   It is particularly concerning that the KMGBF embraces so-called nature-based solutions (NBS), which have become the current buzzword among many governments, conservation groups, as well as “green” and ”blue” business and financial circles. The concept has a nice ring to it, but it is dangerously ill-defined and usually takes the form of offsetting schemes, which tie the protection of biodiversity in one place to its ongoing destruction elsewhere.   As such, NBS are becoming part of the problem, encouraging more land, forest and ocean grabs in areas owned and managed by Indigenous Peoples, small-scale food producers, and other communities.   Moreover, the KMGBF is an open door for profit-oriented interest group to set the priorities for biodiversity action as it allows private, blended and “innovative” finance, without any social and environmental safeguards.   Since its adoption, some governments have pushed for the creation of biodiversity credit markets. In addition, countries such as Barbados, Belize, Ecuador and Gabon have agreed to so-called Debt-for-Nature swaps to refinance their debt in return for conservation commitments. Developing countries’ largely illegitimate debt is thus used as a lever for neo-colonial financial exploitation in the name of biodiversity protection.   Protect biodiversity custodians’ rights   The KMGBF adopts a human rights-based approach to biodiversity and contains important provisions regarding the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as well as gender and intergenerational justice. However, the so-called 30x30 Target, according to which 30% of the world’s land and water surface needs to be under conservation regimes by 2030, revives a “fortress conservation” approach, which has led to systematic violations of local communities’ rights.   The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is only possible by respecting and protecting the rights of those people and communities who act as the stewards of much of biodiversity – peasants, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, forest people, small-scale fishers etc.   Agricultural biodiversity is the result of the interplay of cultural and biological diversity across all ecosystems over thousands of years, based on the knowledge, innovations and practices of communities. Peasants’ and Indigenous Peoples’ distinct systems to conserve, manage, nurture, and further develop their seeds and breeds within their territories and agricultural ecosystems hold the key for biodiversity protection.   Despite its significant shortcomings, the KMGBF and the increased attention to biodiversity that it has generated should be used in a tactical and pragmatic manner to advance agroecology and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, peasants and other rural people.   http://www.fian.org/en/press-release/article/one-year-on-global-biodiversity-framework-set-to-allow-more-biodiversity-loss-3257 http://www.fian.org/en/press-release/article/stop-corporate-attack-on-seeds-and-safeguard-right-to-food-and-biodiversity-2927 http://www.landcoalition.org/en/latest/protecting-biodiversity-hinges-on-securing-indigenous-and-community-land-rights/ http://mothrights.org/project/podcast-crossing-the-river/ http://mothrights.org/category/law/ http://e360.yale.edu/features/robin-kimmerer-interview http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/indigenous-peoples-and-nature-they-protect http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/five-drivers-nature-crisis
	States have committed to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples in climate action by International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, agencie   Dec. 2023   Indigenous Peoples’ Platform COP28 Call To Action   We cannot let future generations suffer like we do and call upon governments to look beyond mercantile laws and policies towards building a sustainable and resilient planet, not driven by power and money.   Distinguished delegates, We, the Indigenous Peoples’ Platform of the International Land Coalition (ILC), make this statement on behalf of our platform, which was created in Jordan in 2022 and brings together 33 Indigenous organizations around the world, representing nearly 2 million people. We are united by our call for the rights to our lands and territories.   The climate crisis is no longer a hypothetical future threat, but a catastrophic reality that weighs heavily on our territories and natural resources and undermines our very existence. For centuries, our lands were despoiled and our resources over-exploited as a result of polluting, market-driven policies.   We Indigenous Peoples are now suffering the consequences of these more than anyone else. Rivers no longer flow, wells and lakes have dried up, forests are being uprooted and burnt, oceans are being polluted and glaciers are melting because the ties between Mother Earth and her guardians have been severed.   These are grave times and the whole world depends on us, our wisdom, and our know-how to protect the most important remaining land-based carbon sinks on our planet, restore degraded ecosystems, and preserve biodiversity.   However, we will not succeed as long as colonial and neo-colonial laws and policies continue to expropriate and dispossess us from our lands and territories. Nor can we succeed when the active defense and protection of our lands and territories, as well as the assertion of free, prior, and informed consent and our right to self-determination, are unjustly labeled as terrorism, and we are marginalized and persecuted.   Our leaders and members are frequently subjected to arrests based on fabricated charges and red-tagging, and in more tragic cases, we are murdered or disappeared.   We therefore call upon governments to:   Respect and fully implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Recognize the critical role that our Peoples play in protecting global carbon sinks, and support us by ensuring tenure security for our lands and territories.   Stand up for those of us who protect our lands from destruction and ensure the safeguarding of Indigenous, Land and Environmental Defenders. Acknowledge, respect, and preserve our traditional knowledge, especially when it comes to food systems and sustainable land use practices, and respect our related rights to our seeds and our intellectual property.   Not evict us from our lands and territories in the name of fighting climate change and not mine our earth for transition minerals without our Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. When you engage us in climate finance, the same principles hold. Our right to say no and our right to equity must be respected, just as benefits must be shared fairly.   Finally, only design national climate policies with us, for we are the guardians of these lands and understand them better than you ever will.   We cannot let future generations suffer like we do and call upon governments to look beyond mercantile laws and policies towards building a sustainable and resilient planet, not driven by power and money.   Protect our rights as enshrined in the UNDRIP and respect our rights to land and territories, and we will work with you to preserve our planet for future generations.   http://www.landcoalition.org/en/newsroom/indigenous-peoples-platform-cop28-call-to-action/ http://www.landcoalition.org/en/newsroom/stop-evictions-of-the-ogiek-in-kenya   Nov. 2023   The International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum (IIPFCC) on Climate Change Caucus delivered this statement at the conference’s opening plenary on the opening day of COP28, November 30th, 2023. Pema Wangmo Lama Mugum, an Indigenous youth activist belonging to the Mugum Indigenous Community from Nepal, was selected by the IIPFCC to deliver the statement to the COP28 Presidency:   “We greet you in a good way, Tashi Delek and Chyag! We congratulate all for the operationalization and pledges for the Loss and Damage Fund. We demand for a meaningful process including direct access to the fund for Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples are facing increasing disasters in our homelands as States fail in their commitment to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In 2023, this global cap was exceeded, threatening our ways of life in Asia and around the world.   Our inherent, distinct, internationally-recognized rights are affirmed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We will not allow these rights to be diminished, undermined, combined or confused in any way. We have the right to full and direct participation, including for our youth, women, and knowledge holders, in all UNFCCC processes.   This includes the development of a strong Article 6 grievance mechanism, loss and damage strategies that prioritize prevention, just transition that respects our rights and knowledge, and the creation of finance and funding mechanisms that are designed by and directly accessible to Indigenous Peoples from all regions.   Carbon markets and offsets, geo-engineering, mal-adaptation technologies, “Net Zero” frameworks and “Nature-based solutions” do not cut emissions and instead create new forms of colonization, militarization, criminalization and land loss. We call for a moratorium on such activities that violate our rights.   Real solutions require drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions based on the equitable phase out of fossil fuels. States have committed to respect and promote the rights of Indigenous Peoples in climate action. The Global Stock Take must consider all elements of the Paris Agreement.   We commit to work with States to implement real solutions based on our knowledge, practices, time-tested sciences, reciprocity with the natural world and Mother Earth, and the full exercise of our rights. Our collective survival is at stake and our children and future generations require action without delay.   http://www.iipfccpavilion.org/stories/openingcop28 http://www.iipfcc.org/key-issues http://iwgia.org/en/component/tags/tag/climate.html http://interactive.carbonbrief.org/carbon-offsets-2023/mapped.html http://www.carbonbrief.org/webinar-how-can-carbon-offsets-be-reformed/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5431-green-financing-just-transition-protect-rights-indigenous http://www.conservation.org/press-releases/2023/12/01/statement-brazil-proposal-for-the-amazon-is-a-leap-in-the-right-direction Visit the related web page
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